A Word Fitly Spoken

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.  –Proverbs 25:11

Mr. Rich Sucher, Boston Trinity Academy's Science Department Chair, talked to the students Wednesday morning not about science, but about words. "Language is funny," Mr. Sucher said. "We use words when we don't really understand what they mean."

There are many languages and many words. We create words and don't always agree on their meanings. "However," Mr. Sucher continued, "the Word of God is independent of any language, time, or place. Words change over time but the Word of God does not change."

Mr. Sucher dissected five words, giving the dictionary meanings and asking students to consider those meanings. The first word he chose is appropriate. According to the dictionary, appropriate means suitable or fitting for a particular purpose, person, occasion, etc. He asked students to picture what they consider to be appropriate bathing suits. He then showed them a picture of what was appropriate bathing attire in the late 1800's. Is something that was appropriate years ago still appropriate today? When we make a judgment of what is appropriate, we have to go back to fundamental principles. Without guiding principles to ground us, we cannot judge whether or not something is appropriate.

The second word is value (used as a verb). Value, according to the dictionary, means to consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance. According to the dictionary, in order for a person to have value, they must have one of these qualities, Mr. Sucher stated. He asked the students to consider that value is actually a person's intrinsic worth. "Why is it intrinsic? Because God put it there, regardless of a person's importance."

Neighbor: a person who lives near another; one's fellow human being. Mr. Sucher asked which of these two meanings best described neighbor; all agreed on fellow human being, especially in light of BTA philosophy as carried out during Boston Day and in the Trinity Institute.

Need is defined as a requirement, an obligation, urgent want, a condition marked by the lack of something requisite, extreme poverty. "Extreme poverty?" Mr. Sucher questioned. "Does that mean people who are not poor don't have needs?" He prefers the definition offered by Franklin E. Payne, M.D., in the book God Confronts Culture: a need is something without which a person cannot physically, mentally, or spiritually survive. This definition embraces the whole person. "We all have needs," Mr. Sucher told the students. "No one has the need to be ignored."

Mr. Sucher said he has the most trouble with the fifth word because it is the word that is supposed to be our single most important guiding principle. What is it? Love. Love is defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person, a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, sexual passion or desire. Mr. Sucher asked, "Which of these definitions would apply to my relationship with a student? Which of them is the one Jesus said we're supposed to do? None of them really apply, so what are we to do? How can we love God, our neighbor, ourselves – how can we do the most important thing – if we don't know how to define it?"

Mr. Sucher suggested we use the first four words to accomplish the fifth: Appropriate is the "how," based on fundamental principles, Value is the "why," as everyone has intrinsic worth, Neighbor is the "who," our fellow human beings, and Need is the "what," the actions that provide for physical, mental, and spiritual survival.

"Love," he concluded, "is to value your neighbor such that you will respond appropriately to their need."